Polymeric materials are used in an extremely wide range of products. A category of polymeric materials having demanding requirements are polymeric materials used for optical applications. Such applications require very high light transmittance, very low levels of haze and good thermal and mechanical stability.
Traditional transparent polymers such acrylic, styrenic, and polycarbonate have been used in making optical lenses, eye glasses, head light covers, etc. They can be readily processed by injection molding. In other cases, a simple blank or block of the polymer may be machined to produce the optical product. Other polymers are used for lenses wherein monomers or pre-polymers are placed into a mold or cavity and polymerized directly to a shape of interest, for example an ophthalmic lens, component for a microscope or contact lens.
The optical properties of materials can be determined by measuring the refractive index and Abbe value. When light moves from a material of one refractive index to a material with a different refractive index it is bent, and the amount of bending is determined by the difference between the refractive index of the two materials. Higher refractive index materials are therefore useful in applications such as optical lenses, which achieve a larger amount of light refraction with a thinner lens than materials when compared to lenses with a lower refractive index.
If the index of refraction varies significantly with wavelength in the visible region, a lens may suffer chromatic aberration. A lens with chromatic aberration produces distorted images that lack clarity.
Current materials used to make polyurethane copolymers with high optical properties have many drawbacks including the use of highly reactive and toxic monomers, high cost of component chemicals and difficulty in controlling optical properties such as chromatic aberration, refractive index, and Abbe value.
As such, there is a need in the art for a novel and efficient methods for producing optical lenses with advantageous optical properties. The present disclosure satisfies this need and provides other advantages as well.